An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 121

Everything seemed to be in slow motion.

 

A baseball bat almost touching the headlights, Choi lunging at them in contemplation, grayish-blue limbs popping out of nowhere.

 

“You fucking crazy bastard, I answered all your questions!”

 

Choi Hee-young’s double entendre echoes like a scream.

 

The last thing I see is the shape of her mouth and my vision goes black.

 

‘I won’t be able to see my father today.’

 

I think I had such a stupid thought while my body was collapsing.

 

It was for the best.

 

Entering this room meant a new opportunity for Choi Hee-young.

 

She would return to reality with something more powerful than that bus for her father.

 

And maybe she wants to keep me there until she’s killed Seo Jun.

 

That, and my instinctive warning that I shouldn’t be in there right now.

 

I had a feeling that if I entered that room right now, I would lose all sense of reason.

 

Not only that, but I also realized that if I were to confront the Master of the room, it would be to my advantage to do so here in reality rather than in his world.

 

Yes, to be honest, I did it half-heartedly.

 

I was so angry that I couldn’t help but feel that I had to make Choi feel bad somehow.

 

In the heat of the moment, my emotional and rational judgment was quickly put into action, but the spirits that make up the bus were faster.

 

The bus quickly disintegrated and formed a new space, and this is the result.

 

“A hallway? Or a tunnel? What is this place?”

 

A narrow, dark passage, perhaps a meter and a half wide, stretched out before them.

 

On either side of it, a cluster of lights gave off a reddish glow, dimly illuminating the surroundings.

 

The light was too faint to be light at all. It was impossible to see anything except in the direct path of the light.

 

The only thing I could tell from the lights hanging at regular intervals was that this place was very long.

 

I put my hand on the wall to my right and felt the cold, uneven texture of concrete.

 

As I moved my hand further, I felt the coldness of a metal that was distinctly different from the concrete, and I realized that it was a thin cylindrical shape, probably a pipe hanging from the wall.

 

It wasn’t the only thing on my fingertips.

 

Shutters were down and there was some kind of rolled up tarp leaning at an angle.

 

It was like a covered market in the middle of the night.

 

The problem was that it was so dark that I couldn’t tell where the walls ended, and the ceiling began.

 

I can’t see a single star or cloud overhead, so it must be an enclosed space.

 

I could only guess that it was at least two meters, judging by the fact that when I raised my arms straight above my head and jumped up and down, my fingertips didn’t touch anything.

 

It was a good thing it wasn’t the kind of room that moved like a bus.

 

I took a step to look around and felt something on my foot.

 

“Yuck! What the hell?”

 

“What the hell, it’s me.”

 

I must have kicked Choi Hee-young who was lying on the floor.

 

It’s a shame that Choi is still alive.

 

I kicked her again and pretended it was a mistake.

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

Choi ignored my insults and looked around slowly.

 

My eyes had adjusted to the darkness and I could just make out objects by the faint red glow of the lamps.

 

Maybe only one of those red lights was the real core. I can’t believe how many fakes there are.

 

It was all part of a clever disguise.

 

‘I will have to break every single one of them to get out of here. What a hassle…’

 

No, if I have enough time, I can deal with that much trouble.

 

The problem is what to do with that human, Choi Hee-young.

 

I think she said earlier that her father got her out of jail.

 

“Hey, just out of curiosity, how did you break out of prison? Did you dig a hole in the wall?”

 

“You fool, if that were possible, I wouldn’t be rotting in there, I’d be out in no time.”

 

So it was her father who got her out of jail.

 

Turning her in to the police won’t solve anything. She’ll just break out again with her dad’s help.

 

Damn it, I have to deal with her.

 

Dealing with Choi Hee-young won’t guarantee complete safety unless she gives up her desire to kill Seo Jun. You never know when she’ll find someone new to kill.

 

But I can’t go into the space and confront him. Not now.

 

It was a hunch without a reason.

 

Maybe it’s because it’s in front of City Hall.

 

“Wow, look at those eyes.”

 

Choi pushed her face in front of me while I thought.

 

“You think father is scary? Why are you sad that the father you were supposed to find earlier is still alive and well?”

 

“How do you know that?”

 

“You cheap bird brain…”

 

Choi spat on the floor and giggled uncomfortably.

 

“You and I are the same, the same.”

 

She seemed to take some kind of pleasure in putting me on the same level as herself.

 

“But don’t really kill anyone, because that’s for me. I’m a child, and I should be at least as useful to my father as you are.”

 

I could tell she was afraid of losing her position.

 

“Aren’t you ashamed of your sister?”

 

“Why? We’re talking about being nice to each other.”

 

“No, not me. Your sister.”

 

“Ah.”

 

As if she understood what I wanted to say, Choi spoke slowly.

 

“…There’s no second to be ashamed of the first to be recognized by their parents. You’re an only child, so you don’t know?”

 

I didn’t bother to answer.

 

“Cat got your tongue?”

 

Choi seemed much more relaxed than before.

 

She’s probably relaxed because there’s no way for me to do any self-inflicted damage here.

 

I should have been able to destroy the headlights earlier, damn it.

 

The spirits that make up the bus reacted faster than I could have imagined. Was it to protect me or to protect the core?

 

If it was the latter, it meant that I wouldn’t be able to escape on my own.

 

Even if I could find the real core among all those lights, the room would change again just as I was about to destroy it.

 

This drove me crazy with fear.

 

It was better than a bus passing through this room in real time, but I knew that if I didn’t do anything, Father would open the door to this place eventually.

 

Apart from the fact that I would be the first to meet him, I had to prevent Choi Hee Young from falling into their hands again.

 

 “You’re restless because nothing is going your way, aren’t you? You don’t know what to do now, do you, my brilliant little sister?”

 

I must have been chewing on my lip without realizing it.

 

Choi, who had been watching, didn’t miss the opportunity to stir up my anger.

 

“What can I say, it’s about time you learned that the world doesn’t bend to your will. Is that too much for a greenhouse genius?”

 

Choi looked as if she really wanted to strike a blow at my psyche.

 

She was so persistent that I wondered if she should have faked a mental breakdown at least once.

 

I felt sorry for her because I could see that she was desperately trying to solidify her status as a senior.

 

“Hey, I’m going to call you sister all the time and use respectful words, so will you shut up?”

 

“I don’t want to, why should I?”

 

I tried a little negotiation, but it quickly broke down.

 

“Hey, sis, I’m bored, why don’t we play trivia? There’s nothing to do but wait.”

 

“Fuck off.”

 

“Hey, are you the only one bored? I’m bored too. That sister is one step away from breaking her father.”

 

“Aren’t you worried about never seeing your dad again?”

 

“I told you he still needs me, and with you here, don’t you think it would be more beneficial for me to think about how I can make him less angry instead of worrying about whether I’ll ever get out of here and all that nonsense?”

 

“That’s an extremely beneficial idea. Huh…”

 

Choi Hee-young, who took my sigh as an affirmation, chuckled and clapped her hands.

 

“Okay. Then let’s play trivia to kill time.”

 

“I said no, please go away.”

 

“You should be grateful when your sister offers to play with you, you cheap little b*tch. I’ll take care of the problem.”

 

I wonder if she thought this was a good way to get on my nerves.

 

“Okay, first trivia. There’s only one lie in what that sister said today, and what is it?”

 

…What?

 

“Guess. We talked about so many things today so, what was the lie?”

 

Choi Hee Young smiled.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Seo Jun was alive.

 

Immediately after regaining her freedom, she ran out into the hallway and managed to get out of the building before the fire spread to the lower floors.

 

There was no time to be shocked that a person could jump without hesitation, no time to check what had happened to the hundred or so people who had fallen out of the window.

 

All she could think about was that she couldn’t let this act be in vain.

 

“I have to live.”

 

Baek Iri will come back.

 

So her heart must still be beating when she returns.

 

That was all she could think about.

 

There were no casualties when Seo Jun rushed down the stairs to evacuate the residents of the other floors.

 

The fire was on the roof, at the very top of the building, so no one inhaled smoke during the evacuation.

 

It was only when Seo Jun made it back down to the ground floor and realized that there were no bodies in the flower beds that she could breathe a sigh of relief.

 

Luckily, the fire didn’t spread too far and was quickly extinguished. Only part of the roof and the front entrance were doused with gasoline.

 

The last thing Choi would have wanted was for the fire to spread to the entire building in an instant. He wouldn’t have wanted to be burned to death.

 

It wasn’t until the reddened sky returned to its midnight darkness that Seo Jun felt her head start to spin.

 

“Where is Baek Iri now?”

 

Choi Hee-young is not here.

 

She probably got caught up in Iri’s spontaneous behavior.

 

Judging by the way the ghosts chased Baek Iri away from the coffin, they’re both probably trapped in the new space the ghosts hastily created.

 

“…Isn’t it better to wait?”

 

At the question that popped into her head, Seo Jun quickly drew a bright red X.

 

“I have to find it.”

 

Feeling sorry for herself or uncomfortable waiting for things to work out was completely out of the equation.

 

This was a rational weighing of her chances to be a burden and her chances to be a help.

 

Seo Jun thought.

 

If she wanted to prevent a repetition of today, she had to do something.

 

It was something that only she could do.